![]() Dickens sued, but in response Parley’s merely declared themselves bankrupt, leaving him to pay his own legal costs, which amounted to £700 (around £90,953/$120,376 today). Worsening his financial woes, the book was pirated by a rival publisher named Parley’s Illuminated Library two months later. ![]() From the initial 6000 sales, he made a profit of just £230 (around £29,885, or $39,560 today), having expected to earn closer to about four to five times that amount. After falling out with his publisher, Dickens funded the print himself to ensure all profits were his, but his insistence on top-quality paper and an expensive leather binding meant that the total cost of production was eye-wateringly high. Less than two weeks after he completed it, the manuscript went to print by Christmas Eve, the first 6000 copies had sold out.ĭespite the early success, the publication of A Christmas Carol was far from smooth. ![]() Published in December 1843, A Christmas Carol took Charles Dickens just six weeks to write, during which time he wrote intensely and fanatically, only stopping to take occasional long walks through London in the early hours of the morning to clear his head. ![]()
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